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13 November 2009

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2009) — A diet high in fructose increases the risk of developing high blood pressure (hypertension), according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, California. The findings suggest that cutting back on processed foods and beverages that contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) may help prevent hypertension.

Over the last 200 years, the rate of fructose intake has directly paralleled the increasing rate of obesity, which has increased sharply in the last 20 years since the introduction of HFCS. Today, Americans consume 30% more fructose than 20 years ago and up to four times more than 100 years ago, when obesity rates were less than 5%. While this increase mirrors the dramatic rise in the prevalence of hypertension, studies have been inconsistent in linking excess fructose in the diet to hypertension.

Diana Jalal, MD (University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center), and her colleagues studied the issue in a large representative population of US adults. They examined 4,528 adults 18 years of age or older with no prior history of hypertension. Fructose intake was calculated based on a dietary questionnaire, and foods such as fruit juices, soft drinks, bakery products, and candy were included. Dr. Jalal's team found that people who ate or drank more than 74 grams per day of fructose (2.5 sugary soft drinks per day) increased their risk of developing hypertension. Specifically, a diet of more than 74 grams per day of fructose led to a 28%, 36%, and 87% higher risk for blood pressure levels of 135/85, 140/90, and 160/100 mmHg, respectively. (A normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80 mmHg.)

"These results indicate that high fructose intake in the form of added sugars is significantly and independently associated with higher blood pressure levels in the US adult population with no previous history of hypertension," the authors concluded. Additional studies are needed to see if low fructose diets can normalize blood pressure and prevent the development of hypertension.

12 November 2009

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older people with stronger muscles are at reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease compared to their weaker peers, a new study shows.

Dr. Patricia A. Boyle of Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago and her colleagues found that the greater a person's muscle strength, the lower their likelihood of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's over a four-year period. The same was true for the loss of mental function that often precedes full-blown Alzheimer's.

Studies have linked grip strength to Alzheimer's, while a person's weight and level of physical activity also influence risk of the disease. To date, however, no one has studied whether muscle strength in and of itself might play a role in dementia risk, Boyle and her team note in November's Annals of Neurology.

"These findings support the link between physical health and cognition in aging and the importance of maintaining good physical function and strength," Boyle told Reuters Health via E-mail.

The researchers measured the strength of nine muscle groups in the arms and legs of 970 dementia-free men and women 54 to 100 years old (their average age was around 80). They also tested the strength of study participants' breathing muscles.During follow-up, which lasted about four years, 138 people developed Alzheimer's. These individuals were older and had worse mental function than the rest of the study participants. They also were weaker.

But even after the researchers adjusted for age and education level-which can influence Alzheimer's risk-they found that muscle strength had a strong influence on the risk of the disease. People who ranked in the top 10 percent for muscle strength were 61 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's than the weakest 10 percent. Stronger people also showed a slower decline in their mental abilities over time.

The relationship between muscle strength and mild mental difficulties, which occurred in an additional 275 people, was similar, with the strongest 10 percent being at 48 percent lower risk than the weakest 10 percent.

Eating meals on the go may be unwise for those wanting to lose weight. New research reveals that scarfing down a lot of food, quickly, curbs the release of certain gut hormones that make you feel full.

The result: Your body doesn't get the memo that it's time to stop dining and that may lead to overeating. That doesn't bode well for our fast-paced lifestyles.

One caveat is the study was small, involving just 17 adult males. Firming up such results, past research has also shown that slow-eating can be a key to healthy portions. One such study, reported by WebMD, revealed it takes at least 12 minutes for satiety signals to reach the brain in thin individuals and at least 20 minutes for an obese person. The upshot is that you need to eat slowly so the "I'm full" messages have time to reach the brain.

"Our findings give some insight into an aspect of modern-day food overconsumption, namely the fact that many people, pressed by demanding working and living conditions, eat faster and in greater amounts than in the past," said lead researcher of the new study Dr. Alexander Kokkinos of Laiko General Hospital in Athens, Greece. "The warning we were given as children that 'wolfing down your food will make you fat,' may in fact have a physiological explanation." In the study, participants all ate about a cup (300 ml) of ice cream during two different sessions in which the eaters took 5 minutes and 30 minutes to complete. Researchers took blood samples from eaters at the onset of the snack and at 30-minute intervals for the next 3.5 hours.

The slow eaters had higher concentrations of two gut hormones, peptide YY and a glucagon-like peptide that are released by the stomach after a meal and act on the brain to signal satiety.

Such slow eaters also had higher ratings of fullness compared with the quick eaters.

The research will be detailed in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

10 November 2009

The food processing world is reeling right now one day after a shocking new series of tests released by Consumer Reports revealed that many leading brands of canned foods contain Bisphenol A (BPA)—a toxic chemical linked to health risks including reproductive abnormalities, neurological effects, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems.

BPA is used in the lining of cans and the toxin leaches from the lining into the food. According to Consumer Reports just a couple of servings of canned food can exceed scientific limits on daily exposure for children.

The federal government is currently studying the dangers of BPA and advocates are calling on the FDA to ban the use of BPA in food and beverage packaging by the end of the year. Companies in other industries, including Wal-Mart, Target, Nalgene, and Babies R Us have already made commitments to stop using BPA.The food industry, however, is fighting hard to stop any government regulation. They say it is too logistically complicated to move away from BPA-lined cans. And it is true that right now there isn’t a good way to produce cans without BPA. But alternative packaging does exist. You may have heard of glass, to take just one example. Or, given how much mind-blowing chemical science goes into the production of most packaged foods, with a shift in research spending the manufacturers could probably devise a technological solution.

While more comprehensive government intervention is ultimately important, right now the companies that produce the food we feed our children could choose to be supportive partners in moving past the use of BPA.

That’s why we’ve just started a petition asking Campbell’s, the largest canned soup manufacturer, to live up to its new “nourishing people's lives everywhere, every day” slogan and lead this industry move away from the use of BPA laden packaging.

When large companies take action on their own they often not only lead their competitors to follow suit, they make is much easier for the government to craft thoughtful and effective regulations to help keep us all safe. Campbell’s, because of it’s wholesome brand and industry-leader status, is in the perfect position to have a huge impact by taking the proactive step of simply committing to phasing out BPA in their products.

Daily consumption of walnuts, rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, may improve the health of blood vessels, thereby decreasing the risk of heart disease, says a new study from Yale.

Supplementing the diet of middle aged diabetics with 56 grams of walnuts led to significant improvements in the function of the blood vessel lining (endothelium), and there was also a trend towards improved cholesterol levels, according to findings published in Diabetes Care. The study adds to a growing body of science supporting the health benefits, and the heart benefits in particular, of increased consumption of nuts. Previous studies have reported benefits for almonds, macadamia, and pistachios.

Indeed, a recent study funded by the California Walnut Commission found that the fatty acids present in walnuts and fish oil may work in different ways to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

According to findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (May 2009, Vol. 89, pp. 1657S-1663S), a diet supplemented with walnuts led to reductions in cholesterol levels, while a fish diet led to reductions in blood levels of triglycerides.

For the new study, David Katz and his co-workers from the Yale University School of Medicine recruited 24 type-2 diabetics with an average age of 5, and randomly assigned them to an ad libitum diet with or without 56 grams of walnuts for eight weeks.

At the end of the intervention period, blood flow was measured using flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) and found to have “significantly improved” by 2.2 per cent in the walnut group, compared to 1.2 per cent in the non-supplemented group. Furthermore, blood sugar levels, and total cholesterol levels were also decreased from baseline values. However, these values did not reach significance compared to the non-walnut eating group.

Further studies are needed to further elucidate the effects of walnuts in type-2 diabetics and larger studies are required to support the findings of this small study.

Diabetic stats

An estimated 19 million people are affected by diabetes in the EU 25, equal to four per cent of the total population. This figure is projected to increase to 26 million by 2030.

In the US, there are almost 24 million people with diabetes, equal to 8 per cent of the population. The total costs are thought to be as much as $174 billion, with $116 billion being direct costs from medication, according to 2005-2007 American Diabetes Association figures.